Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/152

126 the mortar floor, and extending, it may be, up a door to the ceiling. You break away this gallery, and find a troop of white ants hurrying back and forth, extending their road and boring or furrowing the door. But as soon as they are exposed, they run hither and thither in great terror, seeking for their hiding-place. If they cannot reach it, they are lost. The red ants attack them, and seizing their soft bodies with their nippers, after a short struggle bear them writhing away to their holes. The lizards, too, prey upon them, and fowls eat them with eagerness. Thus one tribe is kept in check by another, so as not to increase beyond endurance.

The white ants frequently do much mischief before they are discovered. A woollen rug carelessly left upon the floor but a single night, was brought to us the next morning with a great slit, three feet long, cut down its middle. It was the kareyan had done the mischief. Coming up through the plaster floor, they had in one night furrowed the rattan-mat and spoiled the rug. In the mission printing establishment the boxes of paper are kept upon raised frames which are swept under, and inspected with care. On opening a box, however, its contents were found to be completely riddled with small holes.